James the terrible
by Flower Angel Becca
Summary: Gregory's grandson James is such a handful and it seems that no one in the hotel can control him! When a frazzled Gregory confides in Catherine, will she be able to help him come to a conclusion, or will more chaos follow? Chapter 2 is up
1. At his wits end

**Authors Notes: And here's another Gregory Horror Show fanfic from me!  
Although this is something of a side project while I'm working on 'A reality miscalculated' I wanted to write a short story that just had GHS characters in it and came up with this, enjoy!**

**James the Terrible.  
Chapter One - At his wits end.**

It was a normal day within the Gregory House hotel, well...as normal as it could be in such a place like that anyway.  
And the residents were quite happy going about their daily business...all of them that is, except for one.  
Somewhere in one of the hotel's corridors sat the hotel manager's grandson, James; who was currently sulking from his latest scolding.

Don't touch that!

Don't do that!

Don't run around so much!

Keep the noise down in there!

Don't make a mess!

The number of times James had received such scolding words from his Grandfather were practically as regular as the passing of the days themselves; that it just wasn't funny to the little mouse anymore, needless to say that James was currently reeling in anger from the latest scolding he'd received.

" I dont understand why Grandpa got so angry" he muttered as he rubbed his sore ear, after Gregory had pulled it once again; as next to the verbal scolding, that was his usual form of discipline for his Grandson.  
" All I did was tie Chef's shoe laces together, it was just a joke...I didn't know that he'd be holding a scolding pot of stew in his hands"

Although as he thought back to it, James then chuckled mischeviously to himself.  
" But it was kind of funny to watch...he just went ker-splat and the stew went flying! That stupid guest picked the wrong time to look into the kitchen; that's for sure!" he said as the image of a poor human guest getting soaked with scolding hot stew went through the little boy's mind.  
" Grandpa sent the guest to see Aunty Catherine...I know that poor guy is going to get more than he bargained for"

Yet as soon as James had started to think about how the guest was doing now and thought of perhaps actually checking up on the unfortunate soul, his mind was quick to switch onto thinking of something else and any thought of checking up on the guest was soon forgotten.  
" Ahhh well, that was fun while it lasted...now I wonder what else I can do around here?"  
Turning his attention to the corridor ahead of him, James jumped onto his feet and just started to eagerly run down it with no regard for the likelihood that he would most likely trip himself up at some point.

Elsewhere, Gregory was currently sat in the hotel's lounge with a freshly made cup of tea held firmly in his hand...although he was meant to be cleaning the said-room, he figured that he'd at least try and bide a little bit of time to soothe his otherwise frazzled nerves.  
" That boy is really starting to bite off more than he can chew" the old mouse muttered bitterly as he sipped at the warm liquid in the cup and quickly gulped it down before speaking up again.

" Trying to calm Chef down was an absolute nightmare this time...James knows exactly how the hotel chef feels about his cuisines and seeing it strewn all over the place by what appeared to be by his own hands was almost too much for him to bare" sitting back in the comfort of the sofa, Gregory remembered how the aforementioned chef had practically flailed about frantically when he'd seen his stew ruined; that demonic candle had attempted to slice everything and anyone in his path before the hotel manager had to resort to blowing out the flame on the chef's hat.  
" I hate having to do that every single time he throws a tantrum...but if it's the only way..." the old mouse just sighed and shook his head in despair.  
" If only James was that easy to keep under control, it would certainly make my life a whole lot easier"

But alas, such a wish was out of reach for Gregory and he knew it; practically no one in this hotel could keep that child in-check, not even Gregory Mama and she was the most feared resident within the household...of course she rarely showed interest in raising the child and had left all responsibility to Gregory, as if he had enough responsibilities already.  
Falling silent after that, the old mouse just stared into the nearly empty tea cup as he started to become lost in thought; the only thing that snapped him out of it is when the door to the lounge opened, causing him to jolt out of shock and spill the rest of the tea onto his lap.

In through the door came the hotel nurse, Catherine; who was currently taking a break from her usual duty of taking blood from her patients.  
Looking over to the sofa, the lizard woman was greeted with the sight of a rather sour-faced Gregory who was muttering a few choice words under his breath as he tried to clean the tea off of himself.  
" Oh dear, Gregory...it's a little early to be using that kind of language don't you think?" she quipped as she took a seat beside him.

" Yes, well most people knock before they come in" came Gregory's quick ( and grumpy-sounding) response as he dabbed at his wet fur with a part of his jacket, the scolding sensation from the tea had faded slightly and eventually he just decided to leave it be.

" That may be true if it was the bathroom or someone's room, but this is a public room so there's no reason to knock...anyway, the one who usually goes around knocking on doors is James" Catherine countered back in a dry tone; ignoring Gregory's sulky huff as she wriggled into the sofa a little in order to get herself comfortable, her line of sight slowly going towards the lounge's TV as one of her favourite television shows started.

Yet despite not facing him, Catherine then spoke to the old mouse again.  
" What are you still doing in here anyway? I would of thought that you'd normally be cleaning up somewhere else by now" although her expression eventually became a sly grin as she glanced at Gregory.  
" Could you be slacking off? You know that your mother wouldn't be happy if she found out"

Gregory just raised a brow at Catherine's teasing tone before shaking his head a little, next to Hell's Chef; Catherine was probably the only other adult resident within the hotel that the manager had a friendly rapport with, so discussing things with either of them wasn't that difficult...there was Mummy Papa too; but to Gregory, it seemed like that man was often more interested in complaining about his ailments half the time.  
" I wouldn't call this slacking off, more like trying to come up with a solution for dealing with a bad child"

Catherine went silent for a few seconds after that...then as the programme she was watching finally turned to a commercial, the lizard woman finally faced Gregory with a knowing expression on her face...she knew exactly who the aforementioned 'bad child' was.  
" James is causing you problems again?"

" When is he not?" Gregory responded as he then groaned and placed a hand to his forehead.  
" He's been worse than usual lately, it's starting to push me to breaking point...it's bad enough that if I do one little thing wrong, I have Mama to deal with; dealing with her and that brat is starting to make me think that death would be a better option!"

Catherine just frowned at that and tuttered in disappointment at the old mouse.  
" Now Gregory...I know that James and your mother can be hard to handle, but don't you think that's a little melodramatic of you?" her expression softened slightly as she suddenly remembered something.  
" Remember when I still worked in the Karte hospital? And that speech you gave me when I was thinking of leaving?"

" Refresh my memory, my dear...was that before or after you drained everyone of their blood" came Gregory's flat-sounding reply as he then rubbed at the back of his head.  
" And this is nothing like that time at all"

" It's exactly the same!" Catherine snapped back.  
" Gregory, I know that you don't have the easiest job in the world; but it's the destiny that you chose for yourself and although we don't always seem like it, the people of this hotel need you!"

As the lizard woman saw the startled look in Gregory's face at that moment, she then decided to quieten her voice down a bit.  
" I mean...well...what I'm trying to say is that you just have to push on and deal with it, there's obviously nothing you can do about your mother...but there is something that you can do about James"

Now to put things straight, Gregory was not used to being told what to do by a woman, unless of course the woman was his mother...so it had shocked him to no end that one of his staff was suddenly talking back to him like a superior authority, normally he would of been annoyed...but for some reason, the anger failed to come.  
" Wha-what can I do about him?" he asked in a slightly shakey voice.  
" I've told him off, pulled his ear; that's all...and it never makes him any better"

At that point, Catherine smirked knowingly and folded her arms to add emphasis onto the fact that she was currently being someone's agony aunt.  
" It's simple, if he keeps causing you trouble; just do what I do and give him a smack on the backside!"

That piece of information made Gregory's expression into looking as if someone had just dropped something heavy on his tail.  
" Are you crazy?!" he exclaimed, his arms almost flailing to suit the panicked tone of his voice.  
" If I was to smack him, I'd take one step closer to becoming like _**her**_" the idea was frightning to him, the last thing he ever wanted to do was become like the witch that had raised him.

" You'd only have to smack him when he does something bad" Catherine countered with a little huff thrown in.  
" Besides, it's been the ultimate form of discipline for years; you got it when you were growing up, I got it when I was growing up...I bet even Chef got it when he was growing up too"

" Actually I still get it and you know that I do" Gregory said to Catherine before gulping inwardly as he just had to think of his mother and her sceptre to get all nervous.  
" And I don't care if it's the ultimate form of discipline, I'm not going to do it...not now and not ever!"

This just prompted another disappointed glare from Catherine; it was like no matter what she said, he just wouldn't listen to her.  
' _Oh men can be so annoying sometimes!_' she thought to herself before getting up from the lounge's sofa, she suddenly didn't feel like watching the rest of her programme anymore.  
" That's just your problem, Gregory...you're too soft" she grumbled as she began to make her way over to the door.  
" And I mean it! If you let that boy walk all over you, then of course he's going to keep causing trouble because you never do anything about it" and with that, Catherine briskly marched out of the lounge, leaving Gregory in the room all by himself.

" I'm...too soft?" Gregory rhetorically asked himself as he slowly stared at the glass cabinet that was under the TV, the glass in it reflected his rather sad-looking self-image, he looked smaller than usual where he was currently hunched over.  
He remained silent for a minute or so before his once-sad expression became an annoyed one, his vunerability was giving into pride once again.  
" Nonsense...it was nothing but nonsense" Gregory muttered as he slid off of the sofa and onto the floor.  
" There's nothing wrong with the way that I raise my Grandson, he's the one with the problem; not me!"

Hobbling across the room and out of the door, Gregory just went in the direction of the lobby to continue with his deskwork...maybe that would calm his nerves down a little.  
While travelling there however, he noticed one of the human guests were currently knocked out-cold due to slipping on a banana peel; obviously the work of James once again; Gregory would normally of stopped to perhaps see if they were alright, but in his currently annoyed frame of mind, no thought to do so crossed his mind at all.  
' _He'll get better, it'll take more than some little peel to stop that guest...I should know, he and his sister have caused us a lot of trouble in the past_' he thought to himself as he eventually reached the lobby.

" Well then...time to get back to work" Gregory said in a slightly more happier mood as he had finally reached his desk...only to discover that it was in a mess, papers and books had been scattered all over it, other things had been rearranged into the wrong order; needless to say that it was far from looking like the neat and tidy desk it had been when Gregory had been at it before.

His eyes widened from shock as he surveyed the damage, it was going to take ages to clean all of that up and would probably end up cutting into his usual work schedule too...it was then that Gregory began to shake from rage as he tried to keep it all under control, it didn't help that he knew exactly who was behind this too...oh yes, he knew only too well who had done this, and that only made Gregory's temper worse.  
" JAAAAAAAAAAAMES!!"

It was probably safe to say at this point, Gregory's partial therapy session with Catherine hadn't ended yet; and as he began to tidy up the mess on his beloved desk, Gregory made it a point that he would go and see Catherine again when he was finished.

**To be continued.**

**Gregory, James and Catherine belong to Naomi Iwata, Milky Cartoon. **


	2. Visiting the nurse

**Authors Notes: Gregory visits Catherine in the nurse's office, but will this shed any more light on the problem with James...?**

**James the terrible.  
Chapter Two - Visiting the nurse.**

It had taken a total of approximately six hours to get the lobby desk back into a state of being neat and tidy, two hours had been spent gathering things up into seperate piles, another two hours were spent reorganizing books and papers onto the right shelves, as well as many other little knick-knacks ( two of those things being a dried frog in a bottle and a skull) that Gregory had actually forgot all about; and finding some books to keep on the desk to read whenever he became bored.

The last two hours had then consisted of the old mouse trying to locate the guest book that he usually kept on the desk to make notes of the guests whenever they arrived at the hotel.  
Gregory's search had taken him from the obvious place in the hotel's lobby, to more obscure places like the hotel's garden...but his searches had ultimately turned up nothing; it was only when he'd gone to have a quick lay-down in the manager's room, had he come across a certain misplaced book laying in the middle of a mouse trap...once again, this was another sign that James had been here.

The old mouse knew what would happen if he was to reach for the guest book and so he hesistated for a while...of course he couldn't hesistate forever, that book needed to be back on the desk where it belonged and just leaving it there meant that anyone could read what was in there!  
Of course Gregory could of just left it there so that someone else had the misfortune of getting their hand snapped on, but he didn't want to risk private thoughts about some of the guests being made public...so in the end, he had took a deep intake of breath and reached out for the guest book; the old mouse then winced in pain when the claws of the metal trap clamped down on his hand and tried as best he could to stifle a yelp.

At last, after getting things on his desk back in the order that they should of been in; the hotel manager finally began making his way to the nurse's office in order to see Catherine..as well as perhaps getting his injured hand seen to.  
' _I can only hope that she's not seeing anyone at the moment..._' Gregory thought to himself as he gazed at the candle that he often carried around to light his way through the building, otherwise ignoring the eerie shadows that the light of the flames often cast onto the walls at either side of him.  
' _When she gets into her work, she really gets into it...it gives me the shivers just thinking about it!_'

Approaching the nurse's office, Gregory hesistated at the door for a few minutes before slowly opening it.  
" Catherine? I hope that you don't mind my intrusion, my dear. But I need to talk to you..." was all he said as he gradually went into the room.  
He found the lizard nurse sitting at her desk, she appeared to be gazing dreamily at a vial of what he suspected was fresh blood.  
' _Ahh...looks like she's just finished a work-shift_' Gregory's thoughts echoed inside his head as he spoke up again, unaware if the young woman had heard him the first time.  
" Catherine?"

" Out of all the blood I have ever collected, human blood still continues to be the most sweetest..." Catherine softly murmured to herself as she still gazed at the crimson liquid within the vial, only to realise that she wasn't alone in the room when she heard Gregory's voice from behind her; the young woman eyes widened as she looked around and just saw the old mouse standing there with a raised brow.  
" Oh! Why hello there Gregory, I didn't see you there" was all she managed to say as she quickly placed the vial of blood back into the vial holder (so that it could be alongside many other blood samples) and just tried to look composed.  
" I just get so caught up in my work sometimes..."

" I can see that, my dear" Gregory replied as he did his best not to chuckle at Catherine's expense...although it was hard not to.  
" You haven't been overdoing it again have you?" was the first thing that he asked her, of course he knew that she probably had...but deep down, this blood addiction of hers did worry him at times; not that he'd ever tell her that of course.  
" You know that we've talked about this before"

Catherine just giggled in that usual tone of hers and merely shrugged her shoulders in response.  
" I know that I shouldn't, but I just can't resist" at that moment her tail just seemed to wag to and fro as she thought about her latest patient.  
" Oh, but you should of seen the patient, that man had such gorgeous veins and a handsome face...I just couldn't help myself!"

That only got Gregory to shake his head in what appeared to be dismay...yet as he looked up to Catherine, a sly smirk surfaced on his face.  
" Yes, yes; I'm sure that he did, Catherine...but I do hope that you didn't take too much, remember what I always say about those new human guests?"

That only got Catherine to nod in response.  
" I know, I know...you like to have them neither dead, neither alive; just perfectly stuck inbetween" that smile on her face became slightly wider as she narrowed her eyes slyly.  
" All the more fun for the others, right?"

At that point, Gregory just laughed in reply to that; only for Catherine to join in with the laughing too...had anyone been walking past the office at that time, they would of thought that the nurse's room was an asylum rather than a place to go for medical check-up's.

Their laughing echoed in the dreary corridor, catching off-guard anyone who was out and about in the building at that particular time...yet the laughing of the manager and nurse finally quietened down when Gregory finally found the breath to talk again.  
" You, you could say that, my dear..." Gregory paused to stifle another chuckle, obviously that statement from Catherine had tickled him quite a bit.  
" Yes, all the more fun for the others" yet that smile of his soon became a frown as he folded his arms.  
" But I'm being serious when I say that you should becareful not to overdo it, at the end of the day...you are still the hotel nurse and you need to help others rather than just yourself"

After that, Catherine's smile faded and she just gave a solemn nod in response.  
" Of course, Gregory..." although she just glanced at her collection of syringes that were hanging on the wall and just sighed sadly.  
" It's not easy to control though...I mean, once I'm holding onto a needle...I-I just can't help it, it's like something tells me, urges me to take the blood!" she confessed...however, the young lizard woman then decided to change the topic; taking on a more professional composture as she turned away from Gregory's gaze.  
" Anyway, what brings you to the nurse's office Gregory? Did you have a fountain of a nosebleed again, of course if you did...you know what my prescription is for that..."

' _Now why on earth would I get a noseblee-_' Gregory's thoughts stopped in their tracks when the old mouse suddenly realised what Catherine meant and just threw his arms up into the air out of retaliation.  
" No I didn't! And for your information, I haven't felt like reading that magazine for a long time now!" he yelled defensively...only to suddenly smile slyly and just put on a mock-innocent tone.  
" But I suppose that you have...since those human children said that they'd found it in your room"

Now it was Catherine's turn to retailiate as the lizard gave an annoyed hiss before turning around on her chair to face Gregory fully.  
" What?! As if I'd like to read a tasteless book like that!" she snapped sharply...of course the tell-tale flush of red on her cheeks only got the old mouse to laugh even more, surely a little bit more teasing wouldn't hurt her.

" Well of course you would, afterall...those cheap romance novels probably aren't enough for you!" came Gregory's response...only this time his laughing turned into a startled yelp when Catherine came lunging at him with a syringe at the ready.  
" Catherine don't! I didn't mean it, it was just a joke!" he called out pleadingly as he narrowly dodged getting a rather sharp needle in his head.

" You could never understand the feelings of a woman!" Catherine simply yelled back as she started to chase him around the nurse's office...it surprised her really, for an old man; Gregory could run rather fast.  
" Don't run from me, come and take your medicine like a man!"

From outside the office, thuds and crashes could be heard from within the room as Gregory dodged the needle ( and Catherine's wrath) at every chance he got; which often resulted in Catherine slamming into something or her syringe knocking something over.  
Such a commotion attracted the attentions of passersby, particularly Mummy Papa ( on his evening run) and Judgement Boy ( doing his judgement training) as they went past the room, yet a lot of them resisted the urge to peek into the room and see what was going on; they had known Catherine long enough to know how dangerous she was with that needle!

At one point Catherine crashed into a wall, to which Gregory took the chance to run behind the curtain and scamper under the only hospital bed in the room.  
It was then that he tried to catch as much breath as he could; in the meantime, the old mouse could feel his heart beating like crazy...this was definately a bit of excercise for him but he wasn't enjoying it one bit!  
' _Geez, Catherine needs to learn how to lighten up if she can't take just one little joke_' he thought to himself as he looked fearfully out from under the bed.  
' _Did she honestly think that I was being serious?!_'

Soon Catherine was up and about again, crashing into that wall hadn't made her mood any better and after flickering her tongue at the air of the room, she smirked and glanced slyly at the bed that Gregory was hiding under...oh how being a lizard had it's benefits sometimes.  
A small evil chuckle emanated from the nurse's throat as she slowly began to walk towards the bed.

" Oh my...I wonder where Gregory could of gone?" she said outloud, trying to make her tone seem as oblivious to the manager's wherabouts as possible...at least at the moment.  
" Could he be here...?"  
In a fast motion, Catherine then thrust the needle down into the bed; it's sharp metal point penetrated the blanket, mattress, bed base and even the floor!

Gregory's sensitive ears had picked up the sound of ripping, splintering and cracking when the needle-point had ripped through the aforementioned materials; only for the mouse himself to stifle a panicked yelp when the needle-point landed right in front of where he was.

Yet just as soon as it had came down, the needle-point then went back up as Catherine held up the syringe again.  
" Or could he be here?" and once again, the needle was sharply thrust back down into the bed.

This time the needle's point landed right behind Gregory, beads of sweat had already started to roll down the manager's face as the needle-point went up again; by this time, it was safe to say that Gregory didn't want to find out where the needle-point would land this time and shot out from under the bed like a ball from a cannon.  
After that, Gregory slid under the curtain, across the black and white checkered floor and ended up colliding with the desk.  
Falling backwards onto the floor, Gregory just looked on helplessly as Catherine approached him.

It was at this time that his conscience was telling him that this was his chance to take control of the situation, be assertive for once...Gregory was the full-blooded son of Gregory Mama afterall; and the owner of this hotel, he should of had the authoritive power to tell those who worked for him what they could or could not do, just how difficult could that be?  
Finding mental strength in that possibility, Gregory put on a stern expression and looked Catherine in the eyes; amethyst orbs meeting rose-pinks.  
" Catherine stop this nonsense right now!" he demanded.  
" Don't forget that this is my hotel!"

" That may be true..." Catherine responded thoughtfully, but then smirked psychotically as she rose her needle ready for the attack once again and this time, she knew that she wasn't going to miss.  
" But this is my office!"

Within a few seconds, the entire corridor soon echoed the sound of Gregory's shrill screams...apparently the hotel manager was going to end up staying in the nurse's office a little longer than what he'd originally intended.

**To be continued. **

**Gregory and Catherine belong to Naomi Iwata, Milky Cartoon. **


End file.
